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Jose Mourinho said he found a 'sad' Eric Dier when he arrived at Tottenham Hotspur in November.

It has been a mixed week for the 26-year-old, who has impressed Mourinho with his performances against Wolves in the Premier League on Sunday and then against Norwich in the FA Cup on Wednesday night.

However, Dier made headlines after the cup exit for leaping into the stands to protect his brother who is believed to have stepped in when a fan began abusing the Tottenham defender.

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Now the FA and Spurs are both holding investigations into the incident and the Metropolitan Police are also looking into what happened.

The club have yet to decide on how they will deal with Dier after the altercation and Mourinho has made his feelings clear on it, saying he would have done exactly the same to protect his family and that he believes the club will feel the same.

"I don’t know the answer [to the club's decision], the only thing I can say is that if the club does [punish Dier], it is not because I want it," he said.

"Do you know what I mean? I am with the player, I believe truly that the club is with the player, so I believe there is no action from us.

"One thing is conversations, is sharing ideas, another thing is to go in that direction which I don’t think we as a club want to go."

Dier's career has not progressed as hoped, with him excelling in his early seasons in midfield, after being converted from being a defender by Mauricio Pochettino, as well as when he dropped back into defence.

He became a regular England international, but injuries and a drop in form have seen him struggle to continue his upward trajectory and game time has been sparse for him in the past 18 months.

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When asked why Dier has not pushed on, Mourinho at first said: "I think this is a conversation to have with Mauricio and not with me."

Mourinho tried to sign Dier on a couple of occasions when he was the Manchester United manager and he was asked what kind of player he found when he finally got his man by becoming Spurs head coach in November.

"I found a player that was not playing. I found a sad player, a player without confidence, and then I was trying to give him that confidence back," he explained.

"I played him immediately in a position I thought was his natural position, it was the position he was playing under Mauricio in previous years, with the national team having a promising period in his career.

"I was always happy with his personality, I was always happy with his team concept. He is really a team player. He is not this kind of individual boy, but I was feeling we needed a little more creation, a little more dynamic in midfield also because we wanted to give the team an offensive character.

"Then when we lost the attacking players I thought even more when you don’t have the goalscorers, the Kanes, the Sonnys, you need more players that have a little more creation. They have a little bit more of a chance of scoring goals so we went in the direction of players like Lo Celso and even playing in midfield double pivot."

Mourinho admitted that Dier came to him with the belief that he wanted to return to playing in central defence.

"I spoke with him a few times. He was always giving me the idea that his best feeling would be as a centre back and my answer at that time was I think maybe this is something to start in next pre-season," revealed the Spurs boss.

"Let’s work in relation to that possibility, let us have friendly matches, let us have that feeling, that work, but with different circumstances I decided to play him against Wolves in the back three, where I thought he would be less exposed and with the ball, a midfield player with the ball has more to give than a traditional centre back.

"He played so so well. Then I decide, okay, the feeling is so good, let us go in the back four which is more difficult. It is more difficult for a centre back. He did a back four and was so good again, so now we have the feeling that maybe his best position.

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"More important than what I feel and data shows, is what the player feels. He loves to play there.

"I think you can even see his attitude on the pitch, leadership, confidence, so maybe there is a good solution for him and in a world where centre-backs are not in this moment so many at a high level, maybe it is a good solution for him and for us."